Finally, a movie that doesn't make Mr. Flynn spin in his grave

The wife and I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean yesterday, and we had probably the best time at the movies that we've had in a long time. Sure, we've seen better or greater movies, but this one was more plain fun than anything. I found it crafty, witty, and basically a rollicking-good time. Of course, I'm predisposed to liking pirate movies in general - - I enjoyed Cutthroat Island, for corn's sakes - - but this thing just delighted me, to no end.

I love watching scenery-chewing actors, bellowing orders for their scurvy-dog crewmen to unleash the halyards or whatever. I love the backstabbing treachery that's a part of every great pirate movie. I love the secret treasure hordes, the damsels who in pirate movies always seem to be more than mere shrieking damsels. All of it's good. I read some reviews that say that Pirates of the Caribbean is too long, but I did not find it too long at all. Johnny Depp played the most interesting pirate I've seen in some time, Orlando Bloom shows that he has a future ahead of him once Legolas is done with, et cetera.

I did think that the film pushed the fight scenes between the living warriors and the undead ones a bit far. I wanted to know what would happen to those three undead whom Orlando Bloom blows to bits at the end, what would happen if one got beheaded, et cetera. The idea is clearly that eventually the undead would win by sheer attrition, but it felt like it should have happened sooner, with the "good guys" not really doing much damage to slow them down. But that's a quibble. The supernatural element was a pretty nifty twist on the whole pirate story.

Klaus Badelt's music score was just OK - - it did the job, but it wasn't particularly memorable. It certainly did not make me come close to forgetting Erich Wolfgang Korngold's scores to The Sea Hawk or Captain Blood, and I was distressed that he borrowed from James Horner's bag-of-tricks, of all people (the suspense music with the shakuhachi flute ostinato).

I don't know if the pirate movie can ever really make a full-fledged comeback, but it would be nice to see a good one more than just every ten years or so.

Before the movie, we saw a preview for the next Disney movie based on a ride, The Haunted Mansion. That might be fun. I've always liked Eddie Murphy and dearly wish he hadn't spent so much time making bad movies. Oh, and we walked into the theater in the midst of a preview for some new movie starring Rob Lowe as a Washington, DC lawyer…only it wasn't a preview for a movie. It was an ad for that Lyons' Den TV show that's starting up on NBC soon. Now I gotta watch ads for TV shows at the movies?